This year, 26 families – and an innumerable count of mourning loved ones and strangers alike – will spend the holidays in the shadow of a national tragedy.

An anonymous North Carolina donor contributed 26 Christmas trees – one for each of the 20 children and six adults killed by a gunman at Sandy Hook Elementary School on Friday – for a special tribute.

Volunteers helping out at the town’s fire station decorated the 5-ft. trees, which were lined up in the direction of the school on Saturday.

“We felt the need to come here with our children,” said one Newtown resident, “and this is a wonderful way to honor the young children who died.”

The gunman Adam Lanza shot his mother before the school massacre, and was dead on the scene, bringing the death toll to 28.

One of the first thoughts I had when I heard about the tragedy, was the fact that it happened so close to the holidays. So many families are sitting in homes filled with gifts that their children will never receive, and I truly hope that this anonymous donation brings some kind of solace to them– if only for a moment.

But a few days on and I’m still sick to my stomach and eyes well up as I think of those beautiful children taken too soon. I watched a story this morning on a little girl that played dead as the rest of her class lay dead around her, this poor little girl who was forced to think beyond her years to survive.

It just breaks my heart that this is a parent’s new reality – that their baby has is at rest before them. I couldn’t even think what would do if I were in the same position.

I get so sad whenever I see another article or hear about the tragedy. I feel like it was my sons and my family that was affected… I just cry for everyone’s loss. Perfect little babies that are gone, it makes no sense.

I find it a bit of a coincidence that there are 26 christmas trees in the back of the firehouse the morning of the shooting ready for the anonymous donor to donate the next day. everyone here needs to understand that your being played by people who want nothing more then to take your right and freedoms away.
WAKE UP